Unit Testing Framework

Unit Testing Framework

Table of Contents

• Overview
• When to Use
• Quick Start
• Reference Guides
• Best Practices

Overview

Write effective unit tests that are fast, isolated, readable, and maintainable following industry best practices and AAA (Arrange-Act-Assert) pattern.

When to Use

• Writing tests for new code
• Improving test coverage
• Establishing testing standards
• Refactoring with test safety
• Implementing TDD (Test-Driven Development)
• Creating test utilities and mocks

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

// Jest/JavaScript example
describe("UserService", () => {
  describe("createUser", () => {
    it("should create user with valid data", async () => {
      // Arrange - Set up test data and dependencies
      const userData = {
        email: "john@example.com",
        firstName: "John",
        lastName: "Doe",
      };
      const mockDatabase = createMockDatabase();
      const service = new UserService(mockDatabase);

      // Act - Execute the function being tested
      const result = await service.createUser(userData);

      // Assert - Verify the outcome
      expect(result.id).toBeDefined();
      expect(result.email).toBe("john@example.com");
      expect(mockDatabase.save).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
        expect.objectContaining(userData),
      );
    });
  });
});

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Best Practices

✅ DO

• Write tests before or alongside code (TDD)
• Test one thing per test
• Use descriptive test names
• Follow AAA pattern
• Test edge cases and error conditions
• Keep tests isolated and independent
• Use setup/teardown appropriately
• Mock external dependencies
• Aim for high coverage on critical paths
• Make tests fast (< 10ms each)
• Use parameterized tests for similar cases
• Test public interfaces, not implementation

❌ DON'T

• Test implementation details
• Write tests that depend on each other
• Ignore failing tests
• Test third-party library code
• Use real databases/APIs in unit tests
• Make tests too complex
• Skip edge cases
• Forget to clean up resources
• Test everything (focus on business logic)
• Write flaky tests